ORAM, the organization that works to help LGBTI people life in unsafe countries to find safety elsewhere in the world. On their site they describe their mission:

ORAM provides clients with free legal counseling and assistance, including representation at UNHCR proceedings. We assist refugees through their passage to safety, often until they are permanently resettled in new countries.

The organization has released a series of narration free animated videos telling the personal stories of what the reality of life is for LGBTI people living in hostile environments. Deeply thought provoking and maddening. The countries featured in these three videos ( in order ) are Jamaica, Iraq and Iran. A warning – although they are animated some of the images are disturbing.

According to Gaylaxy Magazine this moderate sized event was the first gay flash mob in Asia.

As part of the pride week celebrations currently going on in Mumbai preceding the actual gay pride march in the city on 28th Jan, Mumbai today witnessed India’s first gay flash mob, which also happens to be Asia’s first gay flash mob. It was a pleasant surprise for many present at Marine Drive when a little after 6pm, more than 50 people started dancing to a medley of carefully selected Bollywood songs ‘Character Dheela’, ‘Sadda Haq’ and ‘Maa Da Ladla’.

The Globe and Mail has just published the Government’s announcement that ALL same-sex marriages performed in Canada are legal and valid in Canada.

All same sex marriages performed in Canada are legal and the law will be changed to ensure that divorce is readily available to non-residents who were married in the country, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says.

Speaking at a Toronto luncheon Friday, Mr. Nicholson blamed the Liberal government that preceded his for not filling a “legislative gap” that has left thousands of same-sex couples in an agonizing position of being unable to divorce should they feel a need to.

Today came disturbing news that government lawyers in Canada argued in a case involving an American couple married in Toronto that no divorce was necessary because the marriage was invalid to begin with. The reason? Because, according to the lawyers, if the country that the couple comes from doesn’t allow same-sex marriage then the marriage is invalid in Canada too. There was a more obvious ( though stupid) one-year residency requirement for divorce they could have cited but they chose to bring up that bizarre argument.

So according to these legal luminaries a marriage performed in CANADA isn’t even legal in CANADA if the couple could not get married in …I dunno… Saudi Arabia? I think the idiots need to understand something about sovereign nations – they make their own laws. The couple is married the second they enter Canadian airspace and likely to be put to death for being gay in their homeland. Very simple. As Dan Savage pointed out in one article, is Canada going to tell a straight Saudi/Jewish couple they can’t marry in Canada because it isn’t allowed in Saudi Arabia?

CBC News had a couple of stories on the subject to open the news this evening and I recorded the second story about how same-sex couples ( including Dan Savage) are reacting to this Harper government encouraged stupidity. Apologies for the quality as I recorded it off the screen on my mobile.

I totally agree with Dan Savage’s reaction to the issue as posted on George Stroumboulopoulos of the CBC’s website :

“Sorry, motherfucker, but this “issue”–the civil equality of gays and lesbians–is wide open now and your fucking government opened it. The debate over same-sex marriage and the civil equality of gays and lesbians has been returned to the frontpages of Canada’s newspapers and a renewed debate over same-sex marriage will dominate Canadian television and radio news programs. And Canada’s religious conservatives will doubtless complain–loud and long–about their precious children having to hear about homosexuality every time they turn on the news. Stephen Harper’s government reopened this issue, not the gays, and Stephen Harper’s government deserves the blame.”

Toronto: Canada’s federal Department of Justice has made a conscious decision to intervene in a case that challenges the validity of thousands of marriages. According to their arguments same-sex marriages performed in Canada between non-citizens whose countries of origin do not recognize marriage equality are not now and have never been legally valid. A direct insult to gays and lesbians both in Canada and abroad, this action reflects either complete neglect of the government’s responsibilities over the past seven years, or a direct attack on the principle of equality in Canadian law.

Since 2004, governments across Canada have issued marriage licences to same-sex couples coming from abroad. Never were any of these couples informed that Canada had no intention of recognizing the marriage licences it was issuing.

Egale Canada calls on the federal government to come clean: have thousands of same-sex couples been misled by Canadian officials for nearly eight years, or has the federal government adopted a policy of surreptitiously attacking the rights of gays and lesbians through disingenuous legal interventions?

This most recent case comes as the federal government is also intervening in an Ontario case to argue that two Canadian citizens who entered into a same-sex civil partnership in the UK–an equivalent to marriage in all but name–are not legally married in Canada and therefore cannot be granted a divorce.

“Not only does this throw into question hundreds of legal rights such as property, spousal support and child custody, it is a betrayal of basic human rights,” said Helen Kennedy, Executive Director of Egale Canada. “It is indefensible for the Government of Canada to play politics with people’s human dignity.”

I want to write a lot more but I have been angry all day about, once again, Stephen Harper trying to turn one of the most progressive countries in the world – MY country – back to the 1950s. I take some comfort from knowing that 60% of Canadians did not vote for this vile politician and his gang of evil clowns.

In the meantime why not visit sorryworld.ca (thanks to my pal Ben Rene in Ottawa for the link).

Same-sex sexual behaviour is often condemned on the grounds that it is “against nature”. Indeed, biology tells us that selection favours those who leave more offspring. But then, homosexual behaviour is widespread – not only amongst humans, but other animals alike, be they flamingos, gorillas, dolphins or bisons. Doesn’t this constitute a paradox for Darwinian Theory? And is there a connection between what goes on in nature and what is morally desirable? This talk addresses these controversial topics